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Trump Adds Troops After Iran Says It Will Breach Nuclear Deal

IN THIS ISSUE: Trump Adds Troops After Iran Says It Will Breach Nuclear Deal, Trump Leaves 'Question Mark' Over Use of Force to Protect Gulf Oil, U.S. House to Vote on Low-Yield Nukes and Transgender Troops This Week, Trump Administration Accusations That Russia Violated Nuclear Treaty Are a ‘Cover Up,’ Moscow Claims, Xi Jinping Will Make First Visit to North Korea Ahead of Meeting With Trump

Published on June 18, 2019

Trump Adds Troops After Iran Says It Will Breach Nuclear Deal

Edward Wong, Helene Cooper, and Megan Specia | New York Times

Tensions between the United States and Iran flared on Monday as Tehran said it would soon breach a key element of the 2015 international pact limiting its nuclear program, while President Trump ordered another 1,000 troops to the Middle East and vowed again that Iran would not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. The Pentagon’s announcement of the troop deployment came three days after attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman that the administration has blamed Iran for. And it came hours after Iran said it was within days of violating a central element of the landmark 2015 agreement — intended to curb its ability to develop a nuclear weapon — unless European nations agreed to help it blunt crippling American economic sanctions.

Trump Leaves 'Question Mark' Over Use of Force to Protect Gulf Oil

Babak Dehghanpisheh and Sylvia Westall | Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump said he was prepared to take military action to stop Tehran having a nuclear bomb but left open whether he would sanction the use of force to protect Gulf oil supplies.Fears of a confrontation between Iran and the United States have mounted since Washington blamed long-time foe Iran for Thursday’s attacks on two oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz shipping lane. Tehran denies responsibility but the incidents, and similar attacks in May, have further soured relations that have plummeted since Trump pulled the United States out of a landmark international nuclear deal with Iran in May of last year. Since exiting the accord, which gave Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program, Trump has restored and extended U.S. sanctions. That has forced countries around the world to boycott Iranian oil or face sanctions of their own..

U.S. House to Vote on Low-Yield Nukes and Transgender Troops This Week

Joe Gould | Defense News

As if the fight over military spending wasn’t heated enough, House lawmakers are also poised to battle on the chamber floor this week over rules regarding transgender service members and new low-yield nuclear weapons as part of their defense appropriations work. Debate on a $983 billion “minibus” has been ongoing for days due to parliamentary delays by House Republicans upset with the funding proposal. After late-night votes last week, the work is set to restart Tuesday with dozens more of amendments to the package, 56 of them related to defense. In the latest regarding the House’s partisan battle on nuclear weapons, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., has sponsored an amendment that adds $19.6 million for the W76-2 warhead ordered by the Nuclear Posture Review to match Russia.
  
Trump Administration Accusations That Russia Violated Nuclear Treaty Are a ‘Cover Up,’ Moscow Claims

Cristina Maza | Newsweek

In an era in which keystone foreign policy doctrines and alliances have been put to the test, the future of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CNTB) appears precarious. Officials in Washington have accused Russia of secretly carrying out low-yield nuclear tests in violation of the CNTB, which was opened for signature in 1996 and has since been ratified by 159 countries. It is the first time that the United States has accused Russia of breaking the ban since Moscow ratified it in the year 2000. “The United States believes that Russia probably is not adhering to its nuclear testing moratorium in a manner consistent with the ‘zero-yield’ standard,” Robert Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in a speech at the conservative Washington D.C. think tank the Hudson Institute on May 29. Russia, meanwhile, has denied that it is breaking the ban, arguing that Washington's accusations are “unacceptable” in a statement released nearly one month after U.S. officials first levied the charge.

Xi Jinping Will Make First Visit to North Korea Ahead of Meeting With Trump

Jane Perlez and Mark Landler | New York Times

President Xi Jinping of China plans to make his first state visit to North Korea this week, a surprise move that could rattle his relationship with President Trump, who has twice met the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and made his nuclear diplomacy with Mr. Kim a signature foreign policy project. Mr. Kim has traveled to China four times in the past 15 months to confer with the Chinese president. But Mr. Xi, 66, who is one of the most traveled Chinese leaders, had been reluctant to reciprocate before now, depriving the 35-year-old Mr. Kim of the prestige of playing host to his most powerful neighbor. By going to Pyongyang, the North’s capital, Mr. Xi is injecting himself into the middle of Mr. Trump’s negotiating efforts, which have languished since February when he and Mr. Kim failed to agree on a disarmament deal in Hanoi, Vietnam. Several analysts said they expected Mr. Xi to try to revive those talks during his two-day visit, on Thursday and Friday.

Here’s How Many Nuclear Warheads Exist, and Which Countries Own Them

Kelsey Reichmann | Defense News 

The number of warheads has decreased over the past year, even as countries continue to modernize their nuclear forces, according to an annual assessment of global nuclear arms. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released the SIPRI Yearbook 2019 on the current state of armaments, disarmament and international security. The report found that 13,865 warheads in existence at the start of 2019 were owned by nine nations: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. The year before hosted an arsenal of 14,465 warheads.

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